A not so raving review of my work during May

During May the weather warmed up here in the UK, which was great as I was starting to think I would soon end up developing webbed feet if the bad weather had carried on. A bit of a break to enjoy some sun and greenery was just what the doctor ordered after over a year of working very hard and getting nowhere fast. You guessed it, I experienced writer's "burn out".

I had spent so long over the last year pushing for a passive income and writing that it has become a massive job to catch up on all the household chores that were neglected. The mix of suffering from depression and having 4 young children can mean that one soon gets behind on housework anyway, add writing most of the day and only doing what NEEDS to be done to keep everyone clean and fed ends up with a serious backlog of duties.

I had been naughty and not taken my antidepressants as I " felt better", that too was a big mistake as the consequence was a build up of emotions such as anxiety, stress and worry. The fixation of worrying about not progressing in monthly income and the lack of medications soon made me crumble and become demotivated. Just a bubble of fairy dust aren't I? Well, I am right now, yes. I am not daft, I am depressed, so I took a break and did other things. I started to make sure I took my medication every day and took a break from working online apart from to potter about.

How taking a break affected my earnings

What everyone reads these for, what has worked, what hasn't worked and what have I earned through it all.

I only wrote 6 articles and not all were 1000 plus words, therefore I only managed 19 points during May. This will no doubt be detrimental to my earnings so I will have to remember that when reflecting future earnings.

Not that I am going to give away which of my articles does best but there is one that does way better than any others for hits and earnings, it is what internet marketers label as "low hanging fruit". Very low paying clicks but regular and regular views.

£4.17 was my Info Barrel Adsense figure. Compare that with the £2.08 figure I am a very happy writer. I need this figure to be around 100 times larger, as most others reading this article. Common sense factor then tells me I obviously need 100 x more articles but surely not, that would mean I need 7900 articles to earn £400 a month. What I really need is to do what I have learned, which is to take a bit of time to make notes of keywords from keyword tools. Those happen to be Amasuite and Keyword Blaze, which are both fabulous and yet I find Amasuite works better for my other platforms, whilst Keyword Blaze really does wonders here as well as everywhere else.

Where am I going wrong?

Writing for pure enjoyment is great and I have my heart in historical articles, or research articles. These do not really pay in my experience, yet I will not stop writing them when I get a chance as I will not stop my passion. What I have learned is that as much as I started writing for passion and thought I could earn from that, they are very two different styles of writing and two different sides of the same coin. From now on the articles that I enjoy doing but do not earn anything will have to be done after I am satisfied with the level of material produced that has earning potential.

Work - Life balance for writers

I feel that I am not the only one who threw themselves in so hard and fast at first that they forgot to live. I had not even stopped long enough to do my vegetable garden and that really got to me, so this month I am stepping off the gas, being more efficient with my time and hoping I can find the correct balance between work and life. Work-Life balance is so hard when you know that your earnings are helped by your output, doing anything other than writing leaves great feelings of guilt, yet you need to do other things to save from burn out and to get ideas.

How to stop burn out as a writer

My advice to anyone at the beginning of the on line writing journey is to take your time. Do not stop doing other things or reading other people's work as that will be what inspires your work. Once upon a time I use to write an article based of my emotions and fury at an ignorant article that I had read on the internet. Once I became so engrossed in my own writing I stopped reading and living, so I burnt out, got stressed out and burnt out.

Really, you only want to be writing 20% of the time as advised by great writers here on InfoBarrel.

My plans for June

As you can see, my May report has not come out until the second week of June so there will be no record breaking during the month of June. I will be working smarter rather than harder, I am hoping to at least get my 31 points on InfoBarrel this month but I also need to get a couple of articles up at Squidoo.

Earning on Squidoo

Whilst I have not made a fortune on Squidoo, I have only got 3 articles published there and have had 7 sales on one article in just over a month. As you will have heard plenty before, if you find something that works, rinse and repeat, although I do not want to sacrifice my earnings here at InfoBarrel as I did this month, so I will have to gain my articles in both places and still find time to relax with my family and do my vegetable garden. Ideas on how I can do this would be grand, hehe.

Comments

Emma, I am so glad you are doing better! We are just planting the vegetable garden here this weekend, so I know how you feel, as I have been called in to work my job and pushing myself to set up websites and write too. I am glad the weather is better there, it is here too! Here's to a good summer!
And I am really proud of your Squidoo sales! That is awesome! I guess if it's the same article as before, you know can still write articles that sell and enjoy yourself as well! Yep, rinse an repeat when you are ready! ;-)

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Hey stranger, how busy has it been lately? lol. Thank you Claire, your support is always a big boost for me. I read your blog for last month's earnings and I am astounded, I KNOW what needs doing now, I just need to be disciplined enough to do it.
Hope we get a bit more time to chat in the winter again,lol.

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Thanks. I know, I don't believe it myself, this month has to be lower for sure. Whenever you need help, let me know.
I have decided to do an ebook one Amazon/Squidoo and put it all together in there, 'cos you know it seems to work! Glad you are liking Amasuite, I really should watch the keyword videos again! I only use 2 out of the 3 programs. Yes winter will be better to catch up!

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Ddraig
You are juggling a lot of stuff. I'm still tired after raising 3 boys and there were times I wondered if we would make it, but slogging on pays off in the long run.
Congrats on the Squidoo sales.